Ryanair makes Lisbon base number 65; now #3 after TAP and easyJet

Ryanair’s new Chief Commercial Officer, David O’Brien, meets the local press after announcing last week that Lisbon would become the airline’s 65th base (and third in Portugal), starting in April. Initially just a single 737-800 will be based at the airport serving nine destinations.

Ryanair launched its first flights to Lisbon on 26 November 2013 when it began operations from Brussels Charleroi, Frankfurt Hahn, London Stansted and Paris Beauvais. Since then a further new service from Dublin has been revealed (starting 1 April). Last week the airline revealed its decision to make Lisbon its 65th base, with a single aircraft based at the airport from the beginning of April and the introduction of four new routes; two to France (Dole and Marseille), one to Italy (Pisa) and one to the UK (Manchester). This brings to nine the number of destinations served, with Brussels services moving from Charleroi to Zaventem from 27 February.

62 departures per week

According to the airline’s booking tool, Ryanair will be operating 62 flights per week from Lisbon once the new routes start in April. Five of the nine routes will be served with at least daily flights, while Brussels and London will be served twice-daily.

Weekly departures

Destination (code)

14

Brussels (BRU), London Stansted (STN)

7

Paris Beauvais (BVA), Dublin (DUB), Marseille (MRS)

4

Frankfurt Hahn (HHN), Manchester (MAN)

3

Dole (DLE)

2

Pisa (PSA)

Source: Ryanair’s on-line booking tool for April 2014

These 62 weekly departures represent around 4.4% of Lisbon’s total in April. In terms of capacity, Ryanair’s 11,718 departing seats account for around 5.6%, beaten only by TAP Portugal (59.2%) and easyJet (9.5%). Unlike some of Ryanair’s other single aircraft bases, it seems highly likely that it will base more aircraft in Lisbon as the airline takes delivery of more 737-800s later in the year.